As the Arizona Wildcats get ready to play the Oregon schools tied for first in the Pac-12, they will be down a man with Emmanuel Akot announcing his transfer.
It was announced yesterday and confirmed by Sean Miller during Tuesday’s media day, that Emmanuel Akot is leaving the team. According to Miller, Akot told the coaches of his intentions to transfer after the team returned home from the Bay Area trip on Sunday
Typically you see players make the decision to transfer before the season, at winter break, or at the end of a season. The timing of Akot’s decision to transfer is odd and not ideal for the Wildcats.
Arizona Wildcats
Akot was a starter for the past 11 games and one of four Arizona players standing 6-foot-7 or taller.
Emman will finish school through the Spring semester before leaving school. This allows him to stay in good academic standing, which Miller did point out contrary to message board rumors.
"“We will continue to support Emman this spring while he’s here academically as a student,” Miller said. “He’s an outstanding student, currently in good academic standing, and we want to ensure that when he transfers that that remains the same for him.“Emman is a great young man and I wish him continued success and more success on his journey ahead. If you’d like to ask me questions about our team, the guys who are here, I’d be more than happy to answer but that’s my statement as it applies to Emmanuel making his decision.” – Sean Miller"
Considered a highly-regarded recruit coming out of high school, Akot’s presence wasn’t really felt on the stat sheet. Looking at the numbers, Emman was averaging 19 minutes a game, up eight minutes from last season. In 17 games this year he has averaged 3.8 points, 2.8 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game. Not eye-popping stats for a starter, but that’s not where this move hurts Arizona.
Coming into the season, Arizona had five players standing 6-foot-7 or taller. Once Omar Thielemans (6’9″) left, Arizona was down to four: Chase Jeter (6’11”), Ryan Luther (6’9″), Ira Lee (6’7″) and Emman (6’7″).
The weakness of the this years’ team, compared to past rosters, is size and length. Losing Akot leaves Miller with only three players to fill two important spots on the floor.
Also, having Akot on the floor gave Miller versatility on defense. Miller’s pack-line defense requires players to switch on pick-and-roll plays, often times putting the defender at a disadvantage. But Akot was one player who could guard positions one through five.
Now the team will look to Dylan Smith or Devonaire Doutrive to fill the gap left by Akot. But with Miller continuing to reference Doutrive’s size/weight, and his full trust in Smith, we’ll likely see Smith on the floor to help with those defensive switches.
Personally, I hope Doutrive is given more time and freedom to be a play-maker, but we will see.
Akot’s decision to transfer isn’t too surprising, except only the timing of it. Recently, Coach Miller has pointed to the increased play of Lee, even saying he’d like to play him along Jeter more often.
Luther has been playing better as of late too, so Akot likely would have seen a decrease in playing time as the season progressed.
When you account for who’s coming in next year, and Ivy-league transfer Stone Gettings being eligible, playing time for Akot only gets more difficult to achieve. For players who want to see a future in the sport, transferring is an option, although not always popular in order for them to find success elsewhere.
Arizona, much like many schools in the NCAA, are no stranger to transfer players. Justin Coleman, Luther, and the go-to Jeter, all came to Arizona via transfer. Each person saw a better opportunity for themselves personally and professionally.
"“Emman, that’s my guy. He’s still our brother. We still reach out to him as one and I’ve also been through the transferring process as well. So losing Emman we wish him the best. We still gonna support him the best way we can because he’s still family. We just come to practice and get better every day as we did before. Nothing changes.“He kind of talked to us as a group and told us why he wanted to leave …. But we also told him we still loved him as one. He still is a part of us as he would be so we told him we gonna encourage him throughout the process.” – Justin Coleman"
Again, transferring isn’t a popular option for fans and media, especially in the middle of the season. Articles and message boards were full of comments saying Akot is a quitter. Some media even went as far as saying Akot doesn’t like to be coached and has terrible work ethic, as if they know him personally.
The million dollar question to this situation is, why now? Why mid-way through the season? And especially why now if he’s going to stay on campus and finish the semester? These are legitimate questions, and only Emman has the answers, if he ever chooses to speak.
I have on good authority that Akot is/was one of Miller’s favorite players, very coachable, and works very hard on and off the court. It’s easy for us as fans to take these moves personally. Does it suck? Yes, but let’s give Akot space. We here at ZonaZealots wish him nothing but the best for him and his family in his future.